First Ride

On Friday I had the day off of work so I ran some errands and headed out to the barn. Bentley and I took our first ride since I tried him 2 months ago. It went a lot better than when I first tried him. I guess the ground work has paid off. He stood like a perfect gentleman for me to hop on and off as I practiced. However after making a few laps around the round pen and then asking for a halt to let me off it was not so great. He gets antsy and doesn't want to stop or stand still for me to dismount. On our first attempt I tried to dismount and he danced around so I swung my leg bag over to try and calm him again, once I did he was still antsy. Every time I become unbalanced (as you do upon dismounting) he panics. All ended well as I continued to work with him refusing to end on a bad note. I was able to make one small lap ask for a halt and dismount with no dancing. This will be our main feat to overcome before any more in the saddle training continues.

Overall I am happy with the "first ride"; it was a lot better than the test ride where he had to be held while I mounted and caught before I could dismount. I have seen many horses have problems standing still while mounting or wanting to walk away too soon. However only problems while dismounting is new to me. Hopefully we can get it all sorted out and have many great rides together.

Bentley's first haircut/pull/mess

Here we are attempting Bentley's first trim job. It started with me not able to find my new clippers. Still not sure where they are...

So this meant using scissors and my old Wahl clippers that won't hold a charge/have seen better days. Pulling his mane was out of the question for me. He stood fairly well considering and his mane doesn't look half bad. Still need to work on the bridle path though. He is really turning into a beautiful palomino dapple color. I hope the dapple stays, but I am pretty sure he will just end up a full golden palomino color once he sheds all the way out. Either way he is turning into a handsome little fellow.

I am super eager to ride him, and will consider at least getting on this weekend since it will have been 2 months since I bought him. I said I would wait 2-3 months to build some respect up on both of our sides before diving in. He does listen quite well on the ground and I hope it shows in the saddle too. If it feels right this weekend I will do it, if not maybe some trailer loading practice will do us both some good =)